Where Efficiency and Durability Meet

Sponsored content by PROTEAM, THE VACUUM COMPANY

January 1st, 2014

Every new cleaning product has some feature to set it apart from its competitors. They force you to decide, do you want labor savings or reduced repairs? What feature is most important? In reality, you shouldn’t have to choose. You need every available edge to make your school maintenance program more efficient and cost-effective.

ProTeam backpack vacuums are designed by engineers at the top of their game to improve every aspect of vacuuming. The GoFree Pro cordless backpack vacuum has been put through extensive laboratory and field testing to ensure that it is the total package, improving efficiency, durability, safety and user-experience.

The GoFree Pro sets cleaners free from having their paths dictated by the nearest outlet. In a recent field test in Nevada, the GoFree Pro shaved 1-1.5 hours off vacuuming time in a 4-hour shift when used as a part of a cleaning system.

“My daughter’s a custodian at a major school district in Nevada,” says Rex Morrison, industry veteran and consultant for over 30 years. “She told me that the hardest part about using the cordless backpack was constantly reaching down to redirect the cord that wasn’t there over and over and over again.”

Morrison was in disbelief over the time savings with the GoFree Pro at his daughter’s school. He was certain that plugging in and unplugging could not save that much time. He conducted his own field test at a school district in Alice, Texas to investigate.

“She was right. Every time you make a turn, unless you want to get your cord caught and go back, you are 100-percent conscious of the dangers of catching your cord on obstacles. That’s what takes the time up. It’s not plugging in and unplugging. That’s insignificant. It’s constantly working with your cord and having the outlet dictate your path. With the GoFree Pro, you take the path of productivity that you choose,” says Morrison.

Time once dedicated to cord management tasks can be reallocated to other tasks or turned into valuable labor savings. Not only that, but the absence of a cord is easier on the individual cleaner, relieving safety concerns of caught, crushed, or frayed cords and allowing for more focus on the task at hand.

“The cord has a skill set,” says Morrison. “At our training sessions, we have a whole program called maintaining your cord. About 50 percent of the cords that I see are not maintained. If your cord is twisted and knotted up, that adds to the restrictions. Cordless changes the rules because the restrictions are removed.”

According to Morrison, anything that takes pressure and stress off of the cleaning worker enables greater focus and productivity. When working on the GoFree Pro, engineer David Lathrop emphasized the comfort of the user with the additional weight of the battery pack.

“The biggest issue was balancing performance, runtime, and weight. It may be heavier, but the weight rests on the hips at the center of the body. Most seem to feel that it feels less heavy once it’s on,” says Lathrop.

To ensure maximum durability, the GoFree Pro was put through 1,000 cycles of a drop test, 4,000 cycles to test the battery connections, and 6,000 cycles to test the power switch — all without failure. Lathrop’s team was also able to confirm that the battery will maintain 80 percent charge for up to 800 charge cycles.

“The GoFree Pro is a revolution in vacuuming,” says Morrison. “There have only been a few revolutions in my day — first backpack vacuums, then spray-and-vac systems, and then microfiber. I would confidently put cordless vacuuming as the next revolution in the jan-san industry.”

This article originally appeared in the January 2014 issue of School Planning & Management.